This article presents a critical evaluation of the practice of authors of articles published in Brazilian academic journals of history in recent years, with a focus on the Early Modern Era, regarding to the work with original sources and digitalized copies available on the internet. It establishes relationships between the little knowledge on how document consultation is carried out and questions that guide the texts, in dialogue with historiographic trends, the growth of the internet and the value of physical archives and libraries today.
Keywords: modern history; research methodology; history journals in Brazil.